


Phantom, Ghosts in the Shadows (Friends Gone, Lost to the Battle)

by PonderingsAndWritings



Series: Critical Role Relationship Week 2018 [3]
Category: Critical Role (Web Series)
Genre: Because Vax takes care of his friends even in death, Critical Role Relationship Week, Don't worry, F/F, I'm not that kind of person, Kima doesn't die, Other, Swearing, This is Lady Kima of Vord, lots of swearing, she makes up six new swear words before breakfast
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-21
Updated: 2018-06-21
Packaged: 2019-05-26 08:42:59
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Major Character Death
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,626
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/14997110
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/PonderingsAndWritings/pseuds/PonderingsAndWritings
Summary: Something moves from the shadows behind her. And Kima hates the shadows. She is a paladin of Bahamut, a champion of light and truth.But in this moment she is comforted, feeling an invisible force slightly tug on her wrist. Correcting the Avenger’s course.Come on. There.





	Phantom, Ghosts in the Shadows (Friends Gone, Lost to the Battle)

**Author's Note:**

> I was stumped for a moment when I rolled this pair for Relationship Week and then remembered that Vax is so protective of his friends that literally nothing will stop him, so here you go.
> 
> Also, there is a lot of swearing. Like, a lot. It's Kima.

“Kima, are you certain that this is the right-

  _WHACK!_

“You were saying?” Kima wipes the sweat off her brow, a playful smile tugging at the corner of her lips, her Holy Avenger landing on a few pieces of broken bone as another horde of skeletons appears from behind the moss covered wall. Their limbs are clicking and their mouths open to reveal horrifying black holes as the halfling paladin smirks and launches forward, tendrils of fire suddenly surrounding her.

Her companion’s armour gleams in the light of her divine smite as he joins her, dispatching limbs from undead bodies and smelling the putrid air, now further polluted by smoke and burning bone.

It is almost too easy until it isn’t. The tunnel’s air suddenly shifts from an almost still contained air to a bone-chilling breeze.

“Oh no,” Lorthan manages to whisper before seeing his breath coalesce in front of him and turn into ice.

The soundless scream of the ghosts escaping the walls overwhelms Kima’s senses, her hands clutching her sword tighter as she dives in front of him to parry the undead spirit’s attack.

“Kima, no!” Lorthan chokes out in a daze, eyes desperately canvasing the ceiling above, hoping that the rest of the Order’s dispatch has heard the commotion from two floors above.

Kima vaults onto the wall and stabs one of the dead fuckers in the face. Well she would if that was a face, but she keeps on slashing and cutting, trying to pierce through.

Vord was right, damn him. This is an infested nest. Her skin is crawling and the sweat is clinging to her and she is slowly getting tired, but at least they’re fewer now.

A desperate cry of anguish echoes in the chamber.

“Motherfu-

She doesn’t get to finish her swear. In the end, that’s probably what upsets her the most before she stumbles into the path of a huge henchman ghoul.

Her mind loses itself to the rhythm of dodging, slashing, and calling on Bahamut, strike after strike infused with his power.

The fucker is hard to hit.

And Kima’s tired.

Before this, there had been another floor riddled with poisonous lizards and another infested with howling mice wolf hybrids.

She hates ancient arcane laboratories with a passion.

_“Kima, please don’t forget to bring the package when you’ve returned, alright?”_

Allura’s warm smile fills her vision and she lifts the sword just as the ghoul prepares for an attack.

She can faintly hear Lorthan yell for help behind her.

Just a few more minutes.

She won’t close her eyes and pray to Bahamut damn it.

Allura is waiting for her at home.

She has to hit this asshole, but it’s fast and she’s exhausted.

But she has to.

Her hands are trembling as she gets knocked back on her feet, the ghoul triumphant in its mournful howl before her.

One more shot at this.

For a second, she thinks she’s missed. Her Avenger slashes an inch sideways and fails to deliver her hit.

She can see the future unfold in front of her eyes and they sting with the image of Allura sipping tea in their living room, glancing at the clock and counting the hours she’s been gone.

Then something fucking moves.

Something moves from the shadows behind her. And Kima hates the shadows. She is a paladin of Bahamut, a champion of light and truth.

But in this moment she is comforted, feeling an invisible force slightly tug on her wrist. Correcting the Avenger’s course.

_Come on. There._

Her and Bahamut’s smite feels more powerful, desperate even. The light disperses the form of the ghoul, leaving nothing on the ground but ashes and an echo of its groans.

Kima clutches at the blood pouring from her chest and her left side slumps against the wall.

She takes a few quick breaths, summoning some of Bahamut’s power to close her greatest bleeds.

She can her footsteps in the tunnels above and Lorthan’s hands claps her shoulder as he gives her a tentative smile.

“Well done,” he mutters.

Kima doesn’t know if she should nod and say nothing or throw a tantrum at the fact that this wasn’t her kill.

She does nothing and lets her whole body sag against the wall, holding on to the Avenger as she sinks to the ground.

No matter what she tells herself about Bahamut and the gods and undead, Kima knows this presence at her side in that moment was not a resurrected shadow. She would have felt it. Her senses have been overwhelmed with undead markers left and right, but this presence didn’t even show up until that second.

Some might call it an illusion produced by fear or some other shit explanation like that.

Some would call it luck.

Others would call it fate.

Kima’s spine tingles at these words and she closes her eyes.

She decides to do the sensible thing for once and wait until she’s safe and breathing in Allura’s arms to think of this shit.

 

* * *

 

In the end, she makes it back to Allura in one piece and doesn’t say anything.

She could have imagined it she tells herself.

It was probably exhaustion.

She doesn’t want Allura to worry.

The last one is more convincing than the other two excuses but Allura worries constantly anyway.

She doesn’t get visions or premonitions or warnings from Bahamut. She doesn’t feel the presence in the shadowed halls or underground tunnels or black caverns.

It’s a year later and she’s half persuaded herself that it didn’t happen.

Then, as always, shit goes down.

Udair gets sick and she is invited to lead his mission into Marquet and they find a giant fire ant colony before the tomb they need to cleanse.

The scorching desert heat is nothing on these lava vomiting assholes and Kima gets cornered by six of them close to a sand-dune.

Her legs are slipping and the night has fallen but the sand has found its way into her gauntlets and it is blistering hot.

She smites the termites one by one before a particularly large one manages to get its pincers around her midsection.

The Avenger almost drops from her hands, but she manages to hold on. The heat is excruciating and slowly makes her weaker as she tries to hack at the thing’s eyes.

She can feel herself a step away from fainting and kicks at the ant, managing to break free of its hold and stumbling onto the sand when she feels it. That same familiar warmth of a shadow passing over her.

Clutching at her Holy Avenger with both hands, she knows her hit will strike true.

And it does.

The last ant falls to the ground as Kima heals herself and joins the others.

She’s in a much better shape than the last time when the supernatural literally had her on the brink, so she knows she definitely didn’t come up with it.

Just as she knows it wasn’t an undead being.

Shit.

 

* * *

 

It’s not often that she goes to the temple just to pray to Bahamut.

Usually it’s because she’s there to receive another mission from the Order, to gather her team.

The sanctum is silent as she makes her way through the corridors and enters the prayer chamber.

It’s dawn, so no one else is here just as she intended.

She kneels beneath the Platinum Dragon’s image and thanks him for her return. She can practically feel the air around her whirling, as if begging her to ask.

And Kima’s never been the kind to shy away from anything, so ask she does.

But it is not a vision that comes to her.

It is a warm, inviting light on her holy symbol and she relaxes, knowing that whatever this is, it is not something Bahamut disapproves of.

She basks in the light until it slowly fades and she is almost content in not getting any answers.

She stays there for a while, muttering prayer after prayer for herself, for Allura, for their friends beyond Vasselheim.

She walks out of the sanctum relieved and ready to smite anything that crosses her path and she decides to take a walk around the city.

The early hour allows for peace before life barges in and she likes the feeling of knowing something is on the burst of happening.

She’s ways away from the Dusk Meadow District when she hears it but she’s sure it’s him.

That voice, in that accent reaches her ear from somewhere beyond the Astral Sea.

_It’s not a transgression to avoid what would have been successful resurrections in the first place._

Kima’s eyes widen, her head swiveling around, searching for a shadow, a hint, anything.

She finds nothing.

A fluttering of wings echoes overhead and two raven feathers land before her.

Kima stands still, fists clenched.

She takes a breath and reaches down to collect the feathers.

Standing up, she raises her head toward the towering edifice of a frozen Titan.

“Fucking bastard,” she mutters as her eyes fill with tears.

She tuts and puts the feathers in her bag.

She sniffs as she heads for the nearest teleportation sigil to Emon and Allura.

She will hold herself together until nightfall when she will let her wife know, so they can cry together and just hold each other until Allura remembers Kima got herself in trouble twice and didn’t tell her and they get back to normal.

She remembers Vex’ahlia murmuring her brother’s words a long time ago. In a shitty tavern, after nightfall, holding Velora close to her chest as the girl slept.

What the fuck do we have in this world except for moments with each other?

Kima chuckles.

What the fuck indeed.

 

 

**Author's Note:**

> Hope you guys enjoyed the feels. This was cathartic for me after writing the first pairing of this week. Please excuse any mistakes. I was, as always, trying to catch up in time. Now, onto the next one. Let's hope inspiration strikes about some good and funny moments. 
> 
> Thanks for reading!
> 
> Kudos and comments are always welcome!


End file.
